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G. Madhan

AFTER two continuous trading sessions of gain, the 30-stock BSE Sensex ended the last day of the week on a lower note. The selling pressure witnessed by Infosys Technologies following its quarterly earnings announcement appears to have dragged the Sensex down. However, other index heavyweights such as Hindustan Lever, ITC and Reliance Industries closed on a firm note to check the downward movement of the Sensex.

While select auto and banking stocks witnessed buying interest, leading information technology stocks and select public sector units (PSUs) witnessed profit-bookings.

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At the close of trading, Sensex was down by 25.21 points (0.74 per cent) to 3358.99 points. Losers outnumbered gainers 839 to 530 in a trade of 9.36 crore shares, up from Thursday's 8.17 crore shares.

The National Stock Exchange's S&P CNX Nifty was down 17.10 points (1.56 per cent) to 1080.25 points.

Infosys Technologies, despite registering a 24.4-per cent growth in its net profits, was down 7.51 per cent to Rs 4,436.10 on trading volumes of 10.8 lakh shares.

Reliance Industries edged up marginally by 0.3 per cent to Rs 297.50 on trading volumes of 22.66 lakh shares. The company has announced that it has struck gas in its offshore exploration in Gujarat. This offshore block, GK-OSJ-1, could have a potential of over one million cubic feet per day of gas, besides the presence of crude.

Other heavyweights, Hindustan Lever and ITC also gained ground.

Leading information technology stocks witnessed selling pressure; the BSE IT index dropped 6.6 per cent. Satyam Computer spiralled down by 4.6 per cent to Rs 261.45 on accompanying volumes of 69.66 lakh shares. Wipro dropped 7.5 per cent to Rs 1,521.40. About 5.09 lakh shares were traded in this counter. Digital GlobalSoft plummeted 5.2 per cent to Rs 600.40 on trading volumes of 20.58 lakh shares. HCL Technologies went down 3.9 per cent to Rs 172.80 on accompanying volumes of 4.89 lakh shares.

Among the second-rung stocks Hexaware Technologies, Hughes Software, Mastek, VisualSoft, NIIT, Polaris Software and Aftek Infosys lost ground.

Select auto stocks gained on Friday. Hero Honda Motors went up by 0.3 per cent to Rs 250.50 on the back of positive quarterly earnings. The company posted a net profit of Rs 152.8 crore for the quarter ended December 2002, up from Rs 133.22 crore registered in the corresponding period last year. The company's total income for the period stood at Rs 1397.8 crore (Rs 1243.3 crore). About 1.77 lakh shares were exchanged in this counter. Other gainers in this segment include Bajaj Auto, Ashok Leyland and Tata Engineering. However, TVS Motor and Mahindra & Mahindra ended the day in the negative territory.

Select banking stocks were on demand on Friday. ICICI Bank rose 4.5 per cent to Rs 139.80 on trading volumes of 4.75 lakh shares. Among the public sector banks, Punjab National Bank fourth trading session in a row surged. The stock went up by 0.2 per cent to Rs 75.10 with volumes of 12.48 lakh shares. Other public sector banks that witnessed buying interest include State Bank of India, Union Bank, Canara Bank and Bank of Baroda. However, Bank of India ended the day in the negative territory.

State-owned oil refinery majors Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum witnessed selling pressure on Friday. HPCL went down by 2 per cent to Rs 294.20 on trading volumes of 10.4 lakh shares while BPCL by 1.2 per cent to Rs 230.75 on accompanying volumes of 7.44 lakh shares. Engineers' India was also among the losers.

However PSU counters such as National Aluminium and Gujarat Gas ended the day in the positive territory.

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